Students outside RD Women’s College in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 5: The state government today asked all junior and degree colleges in the state to have a minimum of 180 teaching days in an academic year with period duration not be less than 45 minutes.

The revised list of guidelines is aimed to revamp the higher education sector.

Similarly, it has been decided that more time be dedicated to practical classes. The duration of each practical class has been increased from two periods to three periods a week.

To avoid overcrowding of students in classrooms, the number of students in each section has been limited to 128. Similarly, in practical classes, each student group should not exceed 32 students in Plus Two and 16 in the degree courses.

The rule book also make it clear that each subject should have at least four periods a week and there must be at least 80 English periods a year. It has also been decided that a teacher should not be allotted more than 25 periods a week.

To deal with absenteeism, the guidelines make it clear that all teachers shall be assigned classes on every working day of the week. “Many a time teachers bunk colleges on the days they have no classes. This is very common in colleges in the rural areas. Some teachers also tend to resort to the practice of exchanging periods, according to their convenience,” said Sulochana Mishra, a senior reader in a government college.

To streamline the teaching and learning methods, the teachers have been asked to prepare a lesson plan according to the syllabus and strictly follow it. The principal will sign the register on the last working day of the month. Colleges have been asked to follow the question and answer script pattern of the CHSE or the state universities and make question banks available for the students. These questions would be prepared by the teachers and preserved in the library.

Sufficient seminars on the honours subjects will be conducted at the end of every week or month.

The department has directed all the colleges to strictly follow the “common academic calendar” that has a timeline chart for various academic activities in the colleges such as the exam schedule, students union election, annual functions and so on.

Besides, students attending less than 75 per cent classes up to the end of each month shall be warned through a notice to be put up on the college notice board specifying the percentage of attendance. Parents of these students will be intimated by registered post at the end of September and December of each year.

Principal of BJB Autonomous College Md Nawaz Hassan said: “It’s a very good initiative by the department and will help the colleges plan their academic plans accordingly.”